I don't there is an OSHA ruling that specifically details that a motorized
microtome must be in histology laboratories.  I don't think they would be
that specific - they usually aren't.  I do have a tech that has been
battling this repetative hand motion illness (i.e:  carpel tunnel) - and a
motorized microtome has only helped a little bit.  Other jobs such as hand
coverslipping, writing numbers on slides, etc are even an irritant.  There
is no solution, when you get that bad - you have to get real with yourself
and admit that you can't do this job any longer.  I have other techs who
have experienced random wrist and hand pain, but have changed the way in
which they do things - hence have no problem now.  If you sit and cut for
instance all day long - you may end up having a problem - variety is the
solution here and taking frequent short breaks if necessary.  

I'm sure we're going to be hearing a lot more in histology about people with
wrist, hand pain problems. It can get ugly and expensive for all of us.